The Queen and the Hatter
by mirijo
Summary: David Hatter had set up a nice enough living for himself. Sure, he was working as a drug-pushing charlatan, and his life was a constant balancing act, and he actually rather hated his life; but still, he shouldn't complain, yeah? And then Ratty barged in, talking about Alice-his Alice. The Alice of Legend. And it all came rushing back. [Mild AIW/Syfy Alice crossover]
1. Prologue (Hatter's Remembrance)

p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"strongA/N: /strongspan style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; line-height: 1.5;"Hello! Thank you for clicking onto my fic. A quick note before we get started: while this is technically a crossover between Syfy's Alice and the original books, I believe that you don't need to be familiar with the former to enjoy this (although skimming the Wikipedia summary might help with a few things). There will be 13 chapters including a prologue and epilogue, to be updated bi-weekly (excluding three posts in the first week, because I felt like the prologue wasn't long enough to upload by itself). I hope you enjoy!/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Content warnings:/strong Drug mention, death mention/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Recommended listening:/strong a style="color: #666666; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-color: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer;" href=" ?v=IJIDPhCZC6kp=n""Little Alice" by Danny Elfman/a/p  
hr /  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"David Hatter had set up a nice enough living for himself. Sure, he was working as a drug-pushing charlatan for the same woman who had killed the one person he had ever genuinely cared about, and his life was a constant balancing act to make sure that he never tilted towards one side of the court enough that the other side decided to do him in, and he actually, now that he thought about it, rather hated his life; but still, he had tea—span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"real/spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"tea—/spanand nice hats and a comfortable bed to sleep in, so he supposed he shouldn't complain, yeah?/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"And the one way Hatter was able to get through it all, the only way he could survive without collapsing, was by never thinking of span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"her/span. It had felt, at first, like he was betraying her memory—It still did, sometimes. But he had found quickly that the only way to get himself through every day was to push every thought and every memory of her firmly out of his mind; because if he didn't, if he didn't. If he didn't, the guilt might stop him from making it through the day./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"It was a system that worked well enough, all in all. Hatter had his business to distract himself from her during the day and evening, and different teas to distract himself after that until he could fall asleep. It worked./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"It worked perfectly well until Ratty came barging into his shop with some girl in a soaking wet dress—span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"hello—/spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"rambling about—/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"About Alice. /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"His /spanspan style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Alice. The Alice of Legend./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"And it all came rushing back to him./p 


	2. When the Hatter Met the Queen

p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"strong style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.5; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Content warnings:/strongspan style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5;" /spanspan style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"Mentions of death, execution, and food (none shown or described in detail)/span/p  
blockquote class="userstuff" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0.643em; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; word-wrap: break-word; color: #2a2a2a;"  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Recommended Listening:/strong a style="color: #666666; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-color: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer;" href=" ?v=jqeL8gA0SRk""When the Day Met the Night" by Panic! At the Disco/a/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"(emPlease note: while there are romantic connotations in the song, it is intended to be read as purely platonic in the context of this chapter/em)/p  
hr /blockquote  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0.643em 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 19.4443206787109px;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"It was a different time, well over a century before the girl in the soaking wet dress arrived to Wonderland; and although it was the same place, technically, it was different enough that you wouldn't recognize them as such./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""A message," David said to the blue-armored guards at the front gate, "From the White King Carroll to the Blue Queen Alice."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"One of the guards peered at him for a moment. Silently, he removed a piece of parchment from a pouch at his side and read it over once or twice before replacing it. "Fetch the Queen," he said to the other guard, "She should be in a lesson with the White Rabbit. Tell her that the messenger she's been waiting for has arrived."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"Well, that was. Alright. "Waiting for?" he asked, eyebrow raised./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""You," the guard commanded him, "Come with me."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Ah—" before David could object further, the guard started marching away, ordering another guard to his post with a sharp gesture. Unsure what else to do, David followed along./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""So," he said, panting slightly as he tried to keep up with the guard's long strides. "Nice day, eh?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"No response./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Must be hot, under all that armor."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"No response./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Just tryin' to make some polite conversation," he muttered./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"They arrived to a tall gate in between two hedges, and the guard abruptly stopped. "You," he said to David, "Wait." With that, he entered the gate and shut it behind him, leaving David alone./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Right," David muttered, "Alright. Wait. I can do that. What am I waiting span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"for/span, exactly? Should've asked that. Right. Maybe I could just sort of drop the letter off here and—"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"The gate opened. It was (as far as David could tell under all that armor) the same guard. "You," he said, "Come." He marched forward through the gate and, after a moment, David followed./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"They entered into a bright and vibrant garden, filled with flowers in all shades of blue—blue daisies, blue roses, hydrangeas, hyacinths, morning glories, every flower you could think of that could possibly come in blue (and a few that David had previously believed couldn't). And off to the side of the garden, under the shade of a large tree, was a long table set up for a tea party; and at the head of the table sat the young queen herself./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"In her light-blue dress and white apron, long curls falling around her shoulders, the only thing that had really changed since the first time David met her (besides looking a little older) was the addition of the red heart on her breast and the silver crown atop her head./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"David bowed. "Your Majesty."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"Alice smiled. "Your hair wants cutting."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"After a moment, David begun laughing. He stood and began to walk towards her; in an instant, the guards were upon him; and in an instant, Alice had waved them off with a request to visit with the Hatter alone. She gestured to the seat next to her./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""There will be tea shortly," she said once he had situated himself, "Someone will bring it out when it's ready."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""You recognized me," he responded with a grin. Alice, for her part, looked like she was trying to hide a smile of her own./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""I didn't, before. When I first met you as the King's messenger. It wasn't until the Red Queen's banquet last week, when I heard you singing that song."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"Before David could respond, a few pawns came out from a door in the side of the castle wall carrying tea and cakes and sandwiches. They arranged everything quite quickly on the table; and as soon as they had finished, Alice thanked them and beckoned them to leave. She poured a cup of tea for herself and a cup of tea for David before resuming./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""And I started thinking to myself—cream or sugar?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Neither, thanks."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Very well. I started thinking to myself," she continued as she poured some of both into her cup, "That I was in need of a Hatter."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"His hands started itching at that. It had been quite some time since he had been able to work with hats, and if she was offering.../p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""And I remembered that—"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Could I ask something?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"Alice looked up from her tea with the startled expression of somebody who has grown rather accustomed to not being interrupted. "Yes," she said after a moment, "You may."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"He bowed his head. "Pardon my interruption, Majesty."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Alice."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Alice." He grinned. "Pardon my interruption, but I am curious about one thing."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Oh?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Mm." David took a sip of his tea. "When I first met you—way back when, in the country of the Queen of Hearts—, you were... here on a visitor's pass, let's say. It was obvious from the look of you, and from the... the feel, that all those from your world have."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"She straightened her back slightly. "Yes, everyone knows that I'm not from Wonderland. And?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Your first visit, you were here not even a day. Second visit, same. But then you show up again a few months after that, reclaim your kingdom, and everyone expects you to disappear by sundown." David leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice. "But you didn't. That was a year ago, and you're still here. How?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"Alice blinked at him. "I don't know," she answered plainly./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""... Oh." He leaned back in his seat. "Fair 'nough. Continue, then?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"She nodded. "Well then, Hatter—"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""David," he said. "David to you."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""David," she smiled. "Are you still set for execution by the White Queen?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Ah." David paled slightly, sitting back. "Technically, yes. I've been released for a bit to continue delivering messages, but, ah. Yeah, technically."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Have you committed the crime yet?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""No," he shook his head. "Not yet. But the White Queen says that she knows it will happen, and that she intends to do me in before I can do it."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"She took a sip of tea, looking at him. "My kingdom needs a hatter," she said plainly. "More and more people are moving in, but nobody here makes hats. And I believe that it would draw many people in if the hat maker for the general populace was also the hat maker for the queen, and if they knew that by living here they could have hats made by one who makes them for royalty."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"David looked at her. "Smart," he commented, "Did the White Rabbit help with that plan?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""No," she shook her head, "It was my idea."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"He stared. "How old are you?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Nine. Or ten. It's hard to tell, these days." She considered for a moment. "Let's say the latter."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT""Hm." David took a sip of his tea. "Fair 'nough," he muttered. "Alright then! You want a hatter, and I want to, well, not die. This seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"The young queen tilted her head. "Is that a yes?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"David grinned. "What do you want your first hat to look like?"/p  
hr /  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; line-height: 22.6800003051758px;"strongA/N: /strongThere are the chapters for today! Follows, faves, and reviews are greatly appreciated./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" align="LEFT"span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; line-height: 22.6800003051758px;"span style="font-size: 15.1199998855591px; line-height: 22.6800003051758px;"Chapter three, /spanspan style="font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.1199998855591px; line-height: 22.6800003051758px;"When the Hatter Made a Promise/spanspan style="font-size: 15.1199998855591px; line-height: 22.6800003051758px;", will be uploaded Friday 7/10./span/span/p 


	3. When the Hatter Made a Promise

**Recommended Listening:** "Fairy Princess" by Carly Comando

* * *

"Where on Earth _is_ that girl?"

"I don't know where she could have gotten to this time!"

Hatter opened his eyes slowly, removing his hat from his face to glance towards his perpetually slightly-open door from his comfortable spot on his bed. People were running about in the hallways, muttering to themselves and shuffling around everything. "Alice," he sighed with a small smile.

Slowly, he stood from the bed and crept over to the doorway, not bothering to straighten his clothes.

"Where could that girl be? I swear, when I find her I'll—"

In an instant, David was right behind the two housemaids. "You'll do what, may I ask?"

They jumped, turning around to look at him. "Hatter!" Lory squawked. "I, I just, I only meant—"

"She's late for her lesson with the White Rabbit!" Eaglet finished.

"Is that so? Well." David leaned down towards the pawns. "' _That girl'_ , as you referred to her, is the _queen._ Little girl or not, she deserves your respect. Try to remember that, yeah?" They nodded, and David straightened up with a smile. "Good! Now, I'll go fetch her. Tell Rabbit that she'll be along shortly."

The two housemaids scrambled off as David walked leisurely off in the other direction. He was in no rush. Why should he be? He knew exactly where to find her.

He made it shortly to the garden, walking over to stand under the large weeping willow in the corner and lean casually against the trunk. "So," he said, removing his hat and beginning to twirl it in his hands. "I heard you're missing a lesson."

"I'm not going today," said a petulant voice from the other side of the trunk, "It's my birthday."

David raised an eyebrow. "Is it?" A beat. "Can I sit next to you?" Alice said nothing, but David took the sound of her shuffling and adjusting her position as welcome enough. He moved over and took a seat next to her, glancing at the young girl. She was laying on the grass facing away from him, arms curled around herself. "You're going to stain your dress."

"I don't want to sit up. I'm the Queen, I don't have to."

"Yeah, that's true. Still, that's a new dress."

"Fine." Alice said; and before he knew it, the child queen was scrambling onto his lap, laying with her back against his chest and her legs stretched out over his. "Better?"

"Fine, yeah." David smiled down at her, giving her a moment before speaking again. "So today's your birthday, yeah? How old are you, then?"

"Eleven," she said after a moment. "I think it's been about two years that I've been here this time. I'm not sure, though." A cloud moved above them, and the sun shone down through the leaves and fell onto Alice's eyes. She made a small discomforted noise, and Hatter removed the bright blue hat from his head to place it over her eyes.

"Not quite." Hatter rested his hand on top of her head. "Been a while more than that, I'm afraid. In your time, at least."

"Has it?" She tugged the brim of the hat down further over her eyes.

"Yeah. Time passes different, in your world and ours. Only been a year or two in our world, yeah, but many more in yours." David shrugged. "Can't say exactly how many, though. The distance from one year to another—by the definitions of your time—changes often, based on how Time feels at any given... well, time."

"Oh." Alice frowned. "I only want to be eleven. I'm not older yet."

"You can be. That's about the only way anyone knows their age here, is how old they feel. If you feel eleven, you're eleven. And you won't be twelve until you feel twelve."

A beat passed. "How long do you think it's been in my world?"

Hatter let out a deep sigh, looking up to the sky as he thought. "Dunno. The exchange rate's changed so much, and I've hardly kept track. Time and I don't get on, you know. The White Rabbit would know better." Several moments passed as Alice said nothing. David tried to work all of the numbers he knew and all of the numbers he could guess in his head.

"You are right," he said after a moment, "In that it has been about two Wonderland years. We do have calendars, we can get you one if you want... anyway, in years in your world, it's been... I don't know. Thirty? Forty?"

Alice jolted up and turned to look at him, hat flying off. "Thirty or forty _years_?"

He blinked, looking down on her. "Yeah. I dunno, though. Could be as few as ten or as many as sixty. You'll have to ask the White Rabbit."

"I..." Alice stared at him for a moment before laying back down in his lap, curling up around herself. "Lorina must be all grown up by now," she muttered.

"Lorina?"

"My sister."

"Oh." David looked down at her, frowning. He had never really considered her having family, back in her world. Her world wasn't something he often considered at all.

"I wonder what they would all think, if they saw me now?"

David paused, considering his next words carefully. "I think I know what they would think," he said after a moment.

Slowly, Alice sat up again and turned to look at him. "What?"

"They would think," he said seriously, "That their little girl, even if she isn't very old yet, has grown tremendously. That she's a clever, bright little girl running a kingdom all on her own, and doing a spectacular job of it. And they would..." David paused for a moment. "They would be proud of you."

"... You really think so?"

"Yeah." David smiled, grabbing the hat and putting it back on top of her head. "I know so."

Alice smiled a little, tugging the hat further down on her head. "I want..." her smile faded as she looked away. "I want to go home," she whispered. "But I don't think I can, now. I've been trying. I've crawled down rabbit holes and tried to go through looking glasses and I fall asleep very promptly every night, but nothing will let me go. Even ways that let other people go back to my world, I can't go through. I've followed the White Rabbit and only ended up back where I started."

"Ah." David frowned. "Ah. Hm." Well, he wasn't quite sure what to say to that, although it did begin to give him a better idea of what had been allowing Alice to stay in Wonderland so long. And if he was right about that—and he was nearly certain he was—then there would be no way at all for Alice to go back to her world. "I'm sorry that you can't go home," he said after a moment, not sure what else to offer.

It seemed he was all out of good things to say for that day, because that didn't seem to help Alice at all. She drew in closer on herself, pulling her knees up to her chest. "Maybe," David said, mind running. "Maybe this is your home now then, yeah?"

She looked up at him. "Do you think so?"

He nodded. Maybe he had a little bit of good things left in him for this day, then. "Yeah! Yeah, I do. I think that this has gotta be your home now, and... and if it doesn't feel like it yet, maybe I can help it be a better home for you, yeah?"

"You would do that?"

"Yeah." David smiled, "Yeah, I would. I'll make sure that Wonderland is a home for you."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

Alice re-situated herself laying on David's lap, and they sat in silence for several minutes before Alice spoke sleepily. "David?"

"Mm?"

"The sun's passed. Do you want your hat back now?"

"Nah, keep it." David smiled. "Think of it as a birthday present."

* * *

 **A/N:** The next chapter, _When the Hatter Didn't Know_ , will be posted Monday 7/13.


End file.
